Small-scale Technology Certificates (STCs) are an electronic form of currency created by the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000 (also known as the RET scheme). One STC is equivalent to one megawatt hour of electricity generated by your solar PV power system. The price of STCs changes according to market conditions. As an owner of a solar PV power system, you can register, sell, trade or surrender STCs for your PV system.

There are two ways you can be paid for your STCs:

Assign your STCs when you purchase your solar PV system to a registered agent in exchange for a financial benefit which may be in the form of a delayed cash payment or upfront discount on your solar PV panel system (most consumers take this option). We not only offer this option, but we may also lock a price for you. So change in STCs price will be our risk and not yours!!!!!!!!

OR

Create the STCs yourself by finding a buyer and then selling and transferring them in the STC Registry.

STCs may be created for solar PV systems in batches of either one, five or 15 year deeming periods. At the beginning of each successive one or five year deeming period, the Regulator (from the Office of the Renewable Energy Regulator) must be satisfied that your solar PV system is still installed and is likely to remain functional for the next deeming period. In order to claim STCs for the full 15 year deeming period upfront – which is the most common option - your designer/installer must be accredited by the Clean Energy Council. More information is available in the RET process for Owners of Small Generation Units (SGUs) guide published by the Office of the Renewable Energy Regulator

The level of subsidy will depend on a number of factors, including the location (also known as the zone) of the solar PV system, the size of the system and the price of STCs at the time the system was installed.

Australia is divided up into various zones based on how much renewable energy can be generated by a solar panel in a given area. So the same sized system installed in Melbourne or Hobart (Zone 4) receives fewer STCs than those installed in Sydney (Zone 3) or Darwin (Zone 2) because Melbourne and Hobart have less sunshine so less solar energy is produced.